Question : For the past few weeks I have been doing an analysis of price and I’m noticing a pattern happening at 8:30 -11:00 AM CST. I have noticed that at 8:30 there is always some type of move and the volatility goes up. In short there seems to be a lot of activity. If it doesn’t happen exactly at 8:30 its bound to happen between 8:30-11. I’ve seen this especially in indices like NQ & TF.
Why does the activity tend to pick up around that time?
Assuming you meant 8:30 ET which is 9:30 ET. The market opens at 8;30 CT, 9:30 ET that is why the volume is high - ie stock market opens so stocks start trading - indices are based on stocks - so volume escalates as stocks where not trading before - volume = orders = movement. Around 11 traders go to lunch and it dies off.
I wonder how can something that trades 24/5 can have an opening time if its open for business 24hrs 5 days a week. By this I’m talking about the emini contract. The big S&P has a pit session that starts at 8;30 and of course it makes sense for the correlation of the stock market.
thanks for the help…
thank you for clarifying that for me…that was great answer…
There is after hour stock trading, and early stock trading, pre-market (special permissions required and big bid/offer spreads about 30 min to an hour before/after close on multiple markets) in between currency value fluctuations and indices on other markets overseas and news after the bell etc…impact the eminis.
Interesting…so why does the big S&P (SP) have a pit session and the ES is trade 24/5? and that is the last question…
SP are full size contracts worth 250 a tick. It is when floor traders at the CME in Chicago trade. ES is the emini at $50 a tick listed on globex not the pit, 2 separate contracts that are highly correlated.
SP ticks in .1, ES ticks on .25. SP floor only, ES Globex only; Note: Opens on Sunday night on Globex
http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/sandp-500_contract_specifications.html
